Handyman Held in ’92 Fire That Burned Opera Items

A Burbank handyman has been charged with setting a fire last year that destroyed an architecturally significant office building and a vast opera history collection that included a first-edition score of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute.”

Phillip Towell, described by his former bosses as “disgruntled,” was arrested Thursday night at his home. Police would not say what evidence led them to finally apprehend Towell, 34. One Burbank fire official said Towell had long been under suspicion for the January, 1992, fire, which caused an estimated $7.5 million in damage.

Towell was arraigned Friday in Los Angeles Municipal Court on one count of arson and another of commercial burglary in connection with the blaze. The fire destroyed the Burbank-based Ledler Corp., which once made and distributed Adolph’s Meat Tenderizer.

Towell pleaded not guilty and was held on $50,000 bail. His lawyer could not be reached for comment.

Towell’s wife, Cyndi, reached at their home, said her husband could not have started the late-night fire. “He was home watching TV with me that night,” she said. “We were shocked when they first started asking us questions.”

The Towells have three children and are expecting a fourth. Cyndi Towell also said her husband loved his job and did not harbor any ill feelings toward the company. “That was the best job he ever had,” she said. “He’s still looking for a job to compare with that one.”

The 20,000-square-foot aluminum-and-glass building on Magnolia Boulevard also housed arts memorabilia collected over decades by the founders of the company, Lloyd Rigler and the late Lawrence Deutsch. The two men, known for making millions of dollars in contributions to arts organizations, were particularly enamored of opera. In addition to the Mozart work, they had hundreds of other scores, a signed fragment of a Beethoven workbook and signed letters from opera luminaries stored in the building.

Rigler said that insurance on the structure covered about $1.2 million in losses. The insurance they once had on the collection had expired several years ago.

Towell had been working at Ledler for about a year before the fire, according to Tim Rhodes, the general manager of the company. Towell often talked about money and marital problems, Rhodes said.

“He was not a happy individual,” Rhodes said.

Rhodes said that the day after the fire, which left the building a mass of twisted girders, collapsed walls and melted office equipment, he got a call from Towell.

“He was angry and did not say anything at all about the building being lost,” Rhodes said. “He told me he had had thousands of dollars worth of tools in the building and he wanted to know what I was going to do about it.”

The tool boxes later were found in the rubble and examined by Burbank Fire Capt. Steve Patterson, Rhodes said. “Capt. Patterson looked through the boxes and they were empty,” he said.

Rigler, 78, said he does not remember having any major disagreements with Towell until about two weeks before the fire, when Towell came to him with a request.

“He said he couldn’t stay with his family anymore and he wanted to live in one of the houses I have that was not occupied,” Rigler said. “I told him I had other plans for that house and then he said he wanted to sleep in the building and stay there.

“I told him I thought he should not leave his family like that.”

Rigler said Towell did not seem angered by the response, but later expressed his disappointment to Rigler’s nephew, who also worked for the company.

“He told him, ‘I guess I don’t have any friends here.’ ”

Rigler also said that Towell, who was familiar with all areas of the building, could have entered the building after hours.

“I don’t know if he had a key, but he did have a (remote) opener for the garage,” Rigler said.

Despite the presence of a security system, a person familiar with the building could get from the garage into the heart of the building, Rigler said.

“Someone could get from the garage to the swimming pool area, where we didn’t have security,” Rigler said. “There was a trap door there that led to a tunnel the architect included for the plumbing and electrical.”

That tunnel, he said, also gave access to the security system.

“Apparently, that night the wire that sent signals out from the security system was cut,” he said.

Neighbors reported that they saw the garage door open at the Ledler building about 20 minutes before fire was noticed, Rigler said.

Rigler said that for him, the biggest loss in the fire was the building, designed by Raphael Soriano, a Modernist in the style of Richard Neutra. “We had students in here all the time looking at the building, learning from it,” Rigler said. “We had plans that it was going to be the home of the collection, so scholars could see it.”